Liang Qiuchi thought that standing guard with Mo Xin would be boring, but unexpectedly, the two of them exchanged words quickly, and the two-hour ordeal of the early morning passed quickly.

For the sake of fairness in the competition, Liang Qiuchi took a short nap for about an hour after returning to the dormitory, then got up and joined the new recruits for morning exercises.

Xiang Bei yawned loudly and looked at him with disdain. “Are you even human? You just finished guard duty and now you’re here for morning exercises, show off.”

“You know nothing,” Liang Qiuchi glanced at the end of the line where Mo Xin was also looking at him.

A pair of bright eyes, like a wolf cub’s.

Liang Qiuchi smiled, put the whistle in his mouth, and led the exercises with more rhythm.

Xiang Bei cursed him as “crazy,” wondering how this person had so much energy all the time.

In the morning, there was an hour of individual tactical training. Liang Qiuchi and Xiang Bei, as outstanding senior representatives, demonstrated the movements for the new recruits under the instructor’s guidance. After a ten-minute rest, it was the five-kilometer timed run, which many new recruits dreaded.

The instructor heard that Mo Xin wanted to compete with Liang Qiuchi and was somewhat surprised.

“Does he know that you broke the school record in this event?” The instructor looked at the lineup with a stopwatch in hand.

“I don’t think so,” Liang Qiuchi did some ankle warm-ups, whispering, “Please don’t tell him either. We’re just having a simple competition.”

“Alright, we’ll start in five minutes,” the instructor agreed readily. He threw a stopwatch to Xiang Bei, instructing him to monitor the pace throughout the run.

Liang Qiuchi walked up to Mo Xin and asked, “Nervous?”

Mo Xin shook his head and continued warming up methodically.

Liang Qiuchi confirmed with him again, “Your leg is really okay now? You can still back out.”

Mo Xin retorted, “You can also withdraw now. There’s still time.”

Liang Qiuchi laughed heartily and stopped talking.

The track had been cleared and prepared. When they heard that they were going to compete, the team members stood on both sides of the track, stretching their necks to watch the show.

Some even spontaneously formed a cheerleading squad for Liang Qiuchi, starting to cheer him on.

Liang Qiuchi waved his hand, making a gesture for silence, and promptly quieted down the shouts—he didn’t want to affect Mo Xin’s mood.

“Qiuchi ge, you’d better not lose to the young master. Your lifelong reputation will be at stake!” Xiang Bei draped his arm around Liang Qiuchi’s shoulder, winked at Mo Xin on the track, and said, “Mo Xin, my money’s on you.”

Mo Xin nodded faintly.

“Enough nonsense, hurry up and get to your positions,” Liang Qiuchi pushed Xiang Bei away. Xiang Bei laughed, whistled, and ran to his designated position to supervise the pacing of the two.

As the starting gun went off, Liang Qiuchi and Mo Xin almost simultaneously accelerated and raced out like a gust of wind.

Xiang Bei watched the two black streaks flash past him, and then looked at their almost identical paces. After a thousand words, he condensed them into one word: “Damn!”

Liang Qiuchi could see from the corner of his eye that Mo Xin was right beside him, barely trailing behind in the first half of the race. The exhilaration of meeting a worthy opponent fueled him even more, and he loved the adrenaline rush!

The spectators on both sides of the track couldn’t help but cheer.

Some cheered for Liang Qiuchi, while others admired Mo Xin.

Amidst the enthusiastic cheers, the two black panthers on the track charged toward the final obstacle. Liang Qiuchi was agile, jumping and scaling the wall effortlessly, easily clearing the first hurdle.

He climbed the rope ladder astonishingly fast, reaching the top in just a few seconds. Then he leaped and rolled smoothly in the sandpit, swiftly getting up and charging toward the next obstacle.

Mo Xin had been keeping pace with him, but the rope ladder was light and swayed, making it impossible for him to be as smooth as Liang Qiuchi. He stumbled slightly, falling half a beat behind Liang Qiuchi.

Even though he gritted his teeth and made a determined effort to catch up, he never managed to overtake Liang Qiuchi’s pace.

In the end, he finished half a minute behind Liang Qiuchi.

But even so, it was still a very impressive result.

The instructor was not surprised by Liang Qiuchi’s progress; what delighted him was that Mo Xin’s result was almost on par with Liang Qiuchi’s record from last year. “Well done, you have potential!”

Liang Qiuchi had already calmed his breathing and smiled, nodding, “Yeah, his physical fitness is indeed good. If he hadn’t sprained his ankle during the field training day, his performance today would probably have been even better.”

Upon hearing this, Mo Xin emitted a laugh of unknown meaning.

Liang Qiuchi draped his arm around him, pulled him close, and said to the surrounding congratulating teammates, “Mo Xin just said he’ll treat everyone to drinks at noon. Don’t be polite with him.”

“Great!” There was another round of cheers from the crowd, and even their attitude toward Mo Xin became much warmer.

Mo Xin felt the warmth of the shoulders he was leaning on, making his face start to blush.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable, he wanted to push Liang Qiuchi away, but there were too many people around him. In comparison, he chose to stand quietly in Liang Qiuchi’s embrace and listen to him chat with others with a smile.

As for what they were talking about, Mo Xin didn’t hear a word of it.

The warmth on his face didn’t dissipate until Liang Qiuchi released his shoulder.

Seeing Mo Xin remaining silent with his eyes downcast, while everyone else was testing their timed runs, Liang Qiuchi pulled him aside, tilted his head, and said with a smile, “Are you sulking?”

The sudden close-up of his face snapped Mo Xin back to reality.

He looked away and whispered softly, “No, I can afford to lose.”

“Let’s go, while they’re all at the fitness test, we can grab a spot in the cafeteria,” Liang Qiuchi said, reaching out to hook Mo Xin’s shoulder. Mo Xin felt the warmth that had just receded from his face about to rise again, so he quickly turned around and strode off towards the cafeteria.

Liang Qiuchi awkwardly withdrew his hand and hurriedly caught up with the dark figure ahead. “Slow down a bit, wait for me.”

Mo Xin asked, “Aren’t you eating upstairs?”

Liang Qiuchi walked beside him with his hands in his pockets and replied, “It’s good to change tastes occasionally, plus I’m here to supervise you treating everyone.”

Mo Xin grunted and went straight to the vending machine, inserted some coins, and after a series of clanking sounds, all the drinks from the machine fell into the retrieval slot.

Liang Qiuchi helped collect the bottles and cans, placed them on the table, and people gradually finished their tests and came to the cafeteria to eat.

Seeing a drink placed at each seat, everyone deliberately came to Mo Xin’s table, either smiling or thanking him.

Liang Qiuchi sat opposite Mo Xin, quite satisfied with the scene.

Mo Xin’s demeanor had gradually changed from indifferent to responsive, and finally to a bit impatient.

He glared at Liang Qiuchi and whispered, “You did that on purpose.”

“I’m helping you improve your interpersonal relationships,” Liang Qiuchi leaned closer, saying earnestly, “Although you didn’t come here to make friends, you still need to manage your relationships with others. You can’t rely on fists for everything, right?”

Mo Xin lowered his head, poking at the beef on his plate. “The strong prey on the weak, survival of the fittest.”

“If you’re going to lead a team in the future, are you going to knock them all down until they obey orders? Obviously not,” Liang Qiuchi chuckled and poked Mo Xin’s forehead, “Strength is important, but personal charm is equally essential. You’ll understand that later.”

Mo Xin stared silently at the man in front of him who was laughing and full of confidence.

Suddenly, the blood vessels under his palm pulsed a little faster.